Dark Revelation
by Cmdr's Monkey
Summary: Jedi Master Dooku comes to terms over what must be done to change the Jedi Order and the Republic.


****_Challenge response to "change" over on the JCF. Had a blast writing this. Enjoy  
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**Dark Revelation**

The former Jedi Master shivered in the darkness, his head lolling forward with beads of sweat and desperation slowly trickling from his brow and temples as he hung from the wall by his wrists, stretching his old limbs painfully until they had gone numb from the lack of circulation. The cell he was in was as black as a Coruscanti, starless night, with the only illumination being a tiny red glow from the door panel across the chamber but far too weak to give his dark eyes enough light to see in the darkness. The cell was as dark as it had felt the moment he had awoken inside it, alone and cut off from the sweet and familiar embrace of the Force.

Oh he could still feel the luminous power lingering at the back of his mind, like an elusive word just on the tip of his tongue, but he could not grasp onto it no matter how hard he tried. It was there and yet it also was not. The loss of that blessed feeling frustrated him, angered him even and his attempts to suppress those feelings lest they get the best of him became more and more difficult to accomplish. It was as if the very air of the cell was feeding on his emotions, stroking his pride and ire and whispering to him that he could rectify his humiliation and loss of control.

All he had to do was give in to his emotions.

But giving in is what had placed him in this situation in the first place. If he had not allowed his pride to be affronted again at the thought of being deceived once more by someone he had thought had been a friend, he would not have lashed out irrationally to the situation. The irony of finding out that the very man who he had thought had been a friend, a man of like mind and dreams, had been, all along, the sinister being who had orchestrated the murder of his Padawan and trained the beast that had been used to slay him.

Now he hung limply with little to no idea as to how long he had been there prior to him awakening or how much time had passed since then either. It felt like days had transpired in the dark as the Darkness whispered to him false promises and lies, even though he knew that it could only have been a matter of hours since the second betrayal in his life.

He had been such a fool to think that the Sith intended to weed out the corruption in the Republic, to help the galaxy to find peace and order to the imbalance that infected everything, including his own family whom he once had believed was infallible and righteous but now he knew better than to believe that any more. His naivety had been cleansed away with the revelation that even the Darkness and corruption it sowed could reach even the most staunch heart of the Light and turn them against everything they stood for, blinding them to the very evil they were suppose to guard against.

They had become so blind that they had become servants of that evil without their knowledge. He had been right to leave them, what felt like only yesterday but in actuality had been months ago. His master had warned them, he had warned them, even his Padawan had warned them and none of his former brothers and sisters had listened. Even now with the death of his Padawan at the hands of one of their ancient rivals, they _still did not believe._

A part of him wanted to go back and tell them _"Look here! You serve one, do you believe me now?"_ but it would have been futile to even try. They would not believe him, just like every other time he had tried to persuade them that the Sith had indeed returned and that they were insidiously working their way into power. He had seen the signs, his Padawan had seen them too but had not associated them with that ancient dark order until his last mission.

The Jedi Council could not admit to themselves that they were wrong and he had lost a good friend to their blindness and he, himself, was now a prisoner of the very Sith he had long since warned against.

A defeated sigh escaped his lips and he shifted onto his feet to ease the pain in his shoulders after having spent hours, days perhaps, allowing gravity to pull against his aging body and straining his limbs. The metallic binders clanked against the equally metallic wall that they were soldered into, the only sound, aside from his own breathing, he has heard in the cell since he had awoken. It was deafening to his ears after having spent so long in silence and he began to wonder if the Sith Master would return soon to finish him off or persuade him to join him.

A small bark of laughter involuntarily escaped him at the latter. He remembered months before, shortly after his Padawan had fallen, how he had spoken to the man he had thought was a friend, that he believed the Sith were trying to fight the corruption and that he had been considering seeking out the Master to join him. The irony did not escape him that he had been in that being's presence all along, slowly being led to a conclusion that the Sith wanted him to come to before revealing himself to the former Jedi.

However, he had reacted negatively to that revelation and now here he was, doubting himself, his family and friends, and the Sith Master's intentions. Especially the part about why he was still alive instead of dead like he had expected when he refused to agree to help the man cleanse the galaxy of the corrupt Jedi Order and the Republic Senate. Why was he still alive? Surely the Sith Master could not believe that he would condone the extermination of his people and bring about the fall of an establishment that had stood for twenty-five thousand years?

He knew there had to be a better way to achieve the same goals, did he not?

Or perhaps that was why the Master had kept him alive, to understand that there was no other way to bring peace and order and balance to the galaxy. The Jedi Order had become stagnant by allowing themselves to become corrupt and blind to the Darkside of the Force and the Galactic Republic was such an old entity that it had become set in its ways and too stubborn to change and confront that which was killing it.

Neither entity could be fixed, only cleansed, and what better way to cleanse something than through a baptism of fire.

Yes, perhaps the Sith Master was right after all. Perhaps the only way to change the Jedi was to destroy them and restart the Order. Perhaps the only way to weed out the corruption in the Senate was to tear apart the Republic and rebuild something new. If the Jedi could not see the Darkness right in front of them, perhaps it was indeed time for them to be swept aside and replaced with an Order that was not so blind and who better to lead that new Order than himself? After all he had not been blind, he had seen and felt the Darkness rising and had tried to do something about it.

Yes, he would bring change to the Order by destroying it and while he helped the Sith Master exterminate his former family, he would help tear down the Republic and rebuild it into something that could and would maintain the peace and order in the galaxy and not succumb to the greed and corruption that it suffered now.

The former Jedi Master scowled into the darkness and lifted his head up as he heard something else in his cell that he had not heard before. There had been a whisper of a pleased sigh to his right and he turned his gaze in the direction, squinting into the darkness and doing his best to feel with the Force that he had been denied of. He did not need the Force to know who it was that stood in the dark inside his cell. He did not need the Force to feel the Darkside permeating throughout the room and into his very bones, causing him to shiver once more at the cold sensation of power.

The Jedi raised his chin proudly and straightened to a stand as he spoke to the entity he could not see nor sense, "I will help you, _Chancellor_."

A shadow blacker than the darkness of the cell moved forward and closer to him. He swore he saw the whites of the man's teeth in the dark as he smiled. "Good, good, my friend."


End file.
